Getting my first real mill, VF3 W/Rotary 4 gun business

[Thinwater]

My partner (the one who has a little investment cash) has decided that we need to buy a VF3 to make our gun parts on. The shop we were using (and where we had our Federal Firearms License) spent to much time on the web looking at what our parts sell for retail and based his prices on how much he thought we should make on "His" work. He now is without work and we are stepping up.

The VF3 looks like a perfect machine for making our AR15 receivers and the rotary table will drop it to 3 set ups instead of the seven he had to do in his 3 axis Mazak.

I have enrolled in the CNC program at the local college that uses all Haas machines and Mastercam X2. We have a super machinest/programmer to get it all running so I can feed it stock and make some parts.

Any other ideas of cool parts we can make and sell to help pay for this beast are welcome. My partner and I both have real jobs and won't need any of the proceeds from what we make to live on.

Current parts are upper and lower receivers for AR15 rifles, front grips for use on quad rails, and gas blocks. I will also make receivers for other type 07 FFL gun makers with their name on them.

Haas should have the machine on the floor in about 6 weeks.

I will also consider other gun parts that anyone else needs made.


JIM

[Moparmatty]

Do you have a website?

[Kool Parts]

Jim,
Please don't take this as criticism, more of a observation from someone that has been in the business for a long time. You don't have a machine on the floor yet and haven't taken your first class yet....
So you are at square one..able to jump in any direction. (I wish I could go back to that square )There are literally thousands of products in this game that have a real need, and there is a profit to be made.
But AR's... There are more company's making those that any other action in the world, And the really bad news is that is they cheapest frigging thing around. Company's beating each others brains out to make a couple hundred dollars..or less. Might be worth a rethink. Also If you are going to be in the product business don't offer to to other peoples receivers. It is a huge pain for a lot of reasons, and besides with the right mix of products you wont have the time.
Gary

[rlabonte18]

I'll have to agree that ar's are a bad move. The VF3 doesn't have the magazine capacity to run these without changing tools while there in the magazine. On one haas it will probably take a whole day to make probably next to nothing. I am guessing you could probably only do about 4 parts a day if it is possible on a VF3 at all. Just my thinking I have been wrong many times before.

[Thinwater]

The web site (Not even close to being a real web site) is www.tacticalmachining.com a photo of the mill we were using is on the site
My reasons for the AR are they are the most popular gun in the USA (and also the reason everyone makes them at cheap prices) and they are fairly easy to make. When I knocked out a lower on my Bridgeport with DRO and no power feed in a couple of hours each night for three nights I knew any good cnc machine should be no problem. We made a test run of 25 in my ex-partners Mazak and they were no problem other than needing to edm out the corners of the mag well. We tried it with small end mills but it took about 1/2 hr because of the size of the end mill and the length used.

As far as other products that will make money I was also going to do a 10-22 receiver with a rail machined on top, both in AL and 4140.

Any and all ideas of what should be made that will be better than AR parts are most welcome.

I am not hung up on AR parts or even gun parts but gun parts are what I want to do. I know an AR very well so they were not "Scarry" to me to take on as a first project.

Thank you all so far and keep the info coming.

JIM

[Moparmatty]

10/22

[slatern44]

Jim
I use to make parts for the PS90 and AR but stopped about a year ago because the liability insurance was so high it was hard to justify it. Have you found some insurance for a good price?

[Thinwater]

Originally Posted by slatern44 Jim I use to make parts for the PS90 and AR but stopped about a year ago because the liability insurance was so high it was hard to justify it. Have you found some insurance for a good price?

None yet, how high was high?

Thanks

[slatern44]

Just for product liabilty alone was about 6k, now its about 1k but can not make any gun parts. It puts you in a high risk class making gun parts.

[Thinwater]

Any more product ideas? I don't want to be a job shop so some good ideas are still needed. i have several custom builders asking for quotes on upper receivers like I was making, each with modifications to fit their needs. These sell for a little more than regular machined forgings and cost the same for the metal per peice.

JIM

[timan]

I have a friend down in Daytona Beach, he works for a company that has mulitiplie Haas machines and they produce these same products for the government 1,000 at a time with no issues.